West Midlands Police admit FOI blunder over on-the-run suspects

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-33883372

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A decision not to name on-the-run suspects has left West Midlands Police "looking like bureaucrats trying to hide criminals", a top officer says.

Deputy Chief Constable Dave Thompson said the decision not to identify the 10 longest-hunted would be reviewed.

It comes after the force refused to release the names on privacy grounds, in response to a freedom-of-information request from the Birmingham Mail.

They include crimes such as murder, attempted murder and rape.

Responding to the Mail's request, the force originally said the information was being withheld as it "would breach the third party's data protection rights".

'Silly police force'

It went on to say: "It would be unfair to release this information where any person could be identified from the data and in this case the right to privacy outweighs any public interest in release."

Birmingham MP Khalid Mahmood, told the Birmingham Mail the decision was "absolutely bizzare".

Now Mr Thompson has told the BBC "we got this one wrong" and looked "silly", although there were some circumstances when information should not be provided through such requests.

One suspect has since been named by the force - Luke Anderson, 33, is wanted in connection with an attempted murder in 2001.

West Midlands Police said two of the other nine suspects were believed to have died outside the UK, while there were "ongoing active investigations" into two others wanted for murder who are believed to be abroad.

'Transparent justice'

In one historical child sex offence investigation, police said the Crown Prosecution Service had decided not to take action against an 81-year-old wanted in collection with an allegation made in 2010.

"We have to strike this balance with people who are wanted and not convicted, when people are charged with offences, clearly we name them as part of a policy and that goes through the courts, it's about transparent justice," Mr Thompson said.

"I just think in this case actually there's probably some things we should have done with that information that would have made us look perhaps a little bit more sensible.

"We've ended up looking like bureaucrats who are trying to hide criminals. We're not, we're in the business of catching them."